If you like a slightly macabre pun, you might like this: Craps has been beaten by Craps. Okay, to be precise, PUBG Mobile has been dethroned by Ludo King, the traditional Indian game that appeals to kids and families, in terms of app downloads for the April-June period. According to Sensor Tower, the company that provides enterprise-grade data on mobile apps and publishers, gaming apps recorded 15,1 billion downloads globally in the April-June quarter. And India, tied to a lockdown, single-handedly contributed 2.270 billion downloads. This would represent around 18% of global downloads. Among Indian game app downloads, Ludo King recorded 48,3 million downloads. All the rage among the youth, PUBG Mobile saw 30,8 million new installs and ranked third. Ludo King's rise to the top does not happen overnight. There was enough evidence that this gaming app which is developed by Indian gaming technology is being developed. In January-March, it recorded 29,5 million new installs and ranked second on the list. But in the April-June quarter he conquered the upper throne. Ludo King, developed by Mumbai-based Gametion Tech, is the first game app from India to achieve 100 million downloads. First released in February 2016, Ludo King's May revenue was around €922,000 worldwide, thanks to in-game purchases.
Anti-Chinese sentiment is also a factor
The Covid-19 induced lockdown, which has allowed families to stay cooped up at home for long periods of time, has sparked a demand for gaming apps to keep kids engaged. The Ludo King free game app, which is great fun as a family game, is not complicated and allows multiple players of all ages, has recorded remarkable numbers in terms of downloads. In February, Ludo King recorded 10,8 million downloads, while in April it amassed 26 million downloads, an increase of 140,7%, according to a report by the Economic Times. The report quotes Vikash Jaiswal, creator of Ludo King and founder of Gametion Technologies, who said, “While the daily active users of Ludo King (DAU) were around 25 million last year, the current DAU of the app (in its peak) is around 43 million. The company had to migrate from 25 servers to 200 servers to cope with its peak daily traffic during the lockdown, with users spending an average of 50 to 55 minutes on the app. Another reason why Ludo King draws more crowds than PUBG Mobile right now is the fact that Ludo King is an Indian app while the latter has its origins in China. Local sentiment is said to have played a role in its growing popularity. But essentially Ludo as a game is something that almost every household in India has played in one form or another. It is a tradition in the country that grandparents play this game with their grandchildren. And technology now has simply helped this tradition succeed.